Allstream was the moniker adopted by AT&T Canada to reflect that fact that it was no longer controlled by AT&T Corp. and was completely separate from AT&T global services in Canada.

MacDonald, who got engineering degrees from both Dalhousie University and the Technical University of Nova Scotia, started his career at NBTel. After leaving Bell in 1999, he headed Leitch Technology.

He was hired by AT&T Canada in 2002, which had earlier been formed from a merger of: MetroNet Communications Corp., a competitive local exchange carrier; Netcom, an Internet Service provider; AT&T Canada Long Distance Co.